This present invention relates to a loader/unloader applicable to printed circuit production lines.
The loader/unloaders fulfil the function of automatically supplying, withdrawing and stacking the printed circuits of a process line for their transfer to the following process line. For this they have a storage tray, their own conveyor belt and means for manipulating and transferring the printed circuits from the storage tray to the conveyor belt and vice versa.
Generally the manufacture of printed circuits comprises various stages or processes that are carried out on different lines, at the end of which it is necessary to stack them in order to transfer them to the next process line.
In this sort of process line, the printed circuits are transported in a horizontal position one by one.
In order to minimise the intervention of the operator and automate as much as possible the manufacturing process the use is now known of machines whose purpose is to transfer the circuits, one by one, from the stack to the process line and vice versa.
For this purpose, this type of machine needs to handle delicately the printed circuits, for which it has an articulated arm that has to make determined movements of transfer and rotation, said arm being suspended from the roof or from one of the walls of the machine.
The articulated arm must be actuated by various motors to achieve the synchronization of all the necessary movements, which implies a mechanical complexity that results in a greater number of breakdowns, greater time for adjustment and programming, etc., very important factors to be taken into account in this type of machine, given that, by definition, they have to work continuously, without interruptions and with minimum intervention time on the part of the operator.
Another disadvantage in this type of machine is that almost all the process lines have different heights with respect to the floor, because of which for their use they have to be adapted to each of the lines.
The loader/unloader of printed circuits proposed by the invention fully resolves the aforementioned problems in a manner that simplifies the design of the machine and allows adjusting to the different heights of the process lines.
For this, and more specifically, the printed circuit loader/unloader includes a storage tray support chassis, a conveyor belt and means for transferring the printed circuits from the storage tray to the conveyor belt and vice versa.
Said means of transfer consist of a handling device consisting of an arm equipped with suction pads for securing the printed circuits, which is moveable angularly between a receiving position, coinciding with the storage tray, to a final position coinciding with the conveyor belt, which arm is fixed to a transversal bar that can move and rotate between two identical slots implemented in opposing positions in respective side panels of the chassis.
Said bar is connected with freedom to rotate, to an extendible lever that is joined to the shaft of an actuating motor and causes the movement of the bar along the slots.
Likewise, it is connected to a pivoting rod, through a carriage moveable along said rod, which causes the rotation of the bar.
Both the movement and the rotation of the handling device are driven by a single actuating motor.
The rod pivots about its free end, around a hinged point moveable on a swivel orifice, inclined and parallel to the upward linear first section of the slot, in order to be able to adjust the inclination of the handling device to the inclination and height of the conveyor belt, all of which without altering its inclination with respect to the storage tray.